Monday, 7 August 2017

Race Report: UCI World Cup 2017 Round 6: Mont St Anne, Canada

Rachel and Kade podium with 5th places and Gee and Muddy ride awesome runs in wet conditions for 17th and 40th place.Mont St Anne is a World Cup Classic, it's long, brutal and this year it's more rocky than it has ever been before. Rain in the last few days had left the course pretty slippery but all eyes were to the skies as thunderstorms rolled into Mont St Anne today with 100% likelihood of rain forecast - when would the storm him and who would suffer the consequences?First up as ever were the juniors - and it stayed dry for them! Finn Iles had qualified down in ninth so perhaps unsurprisingly he was in the hot seat with Joe Breeden in 2nd and Nikolas Nesteroff in third when fourth qualifier Kade came on track. What could our rising star bring to today's race?Kade didn't have a confident start, 4 seconds back by the first split but that was to be the least of it, a mistake in the woods saw him with his hands off the bars losing more valuable time and near the bottom he smashed hard into a rock partially detaching a pedal and rendering it useless for the rest of the run. Kade's good friend Kaos Seagrave had qualified in third but was way back in 15th today, Sylvian Cougoureux slotted into 2nd pushing Kade back into 5th and then only first place qualifier Matt Walker was left on track. Trouble in the bottom section (rumours of a puncture) ended Walker's weekend and Kade's 5th stood.

In the women's race 6th qualifier Emilie Siegenthaler roared into the hot seat by 12 seconds just before the top 5 came on course, then the action got pretty wild! Marine Cabirou had trouble and was way off the pace then 4th qualifier Tahnee Seagrave was on track. Tahnee attacked all the way holding nothing back and it paid huge dividends, into the hotseat 12.75 seconds clear of Siegenthaler. Could Rachel match her?Rachel started more steadily than usual and was slightly down by split 1, 2.5 down by split 2 and then disaster struck. She got completely sideways in the rocks and it was nothing short of a miracle that she managed to hold on and stay within the tapes as she veered to the side of the course. 6.1 seconds back by split 3, she had a few more sketchy moments and was 9.5 down on Seagrave by split 4, crossing the line in 3rd place. Tracey Hannah had a good fast run, but a flat right at the end of the course probably stole her 2nd place from her. Myriam Pompon didn't have a great start, losing her pedals out of the start hut but she composed herself and put together a good run - enough for 2nd place. Rachel said: "Congratulations to Tahnee and to Pompon, Tracey and Emilie. It's been a wild weekend. Only physio Fi Lundie's sterling work enabled me to hold on out there today!"In the Men's race, Gee had qualified 31st, still nursing his hip he put together another solid run despite slippery conditions to finish 4.24.77 - just 8 seconds off his dry qualifying run and eventually good enough for 17th place. Muddy had qualified in 13th and was super-excited that at last he felt he was finding his flow, but shortly before his Finals run the storm arrived in earnest and looked likely to put paid to the entire top 20's chances. Muddy was one of the first to ride the storm and the driving rain put paid to his quest for a top ten result. He rode with the confidence of a successful week's riding behind him but he crossed in 4.29.83 (18 seconds back on his qualifying time), enough for 40th. Muddy said: "That was the wildest run of my life! I'm extremely happy with how I approached this weekend. I was calm, relaxed and shredding! Pity Mother Nature had other ideas for me! Crazy that this is my best result of the season though!"